The AMC Hampshire Mall theatres opened in 1978 with four screens like its next-door counterpart at the Mountain Farms Mall. The theatre expanded in the mid-80s, adding two new auditoriums to the left of the main entrance. You could tell the “new” theatres from the original ones as the new seats reclined slightly and sported cupholders in the armrests. I remember thinking the cupholder idea was an innovation whose time had come.

The theatre anchored the Cafe Square area of the mall. Extensively themed in American Town Square brick-and-gaslight, Cafe Square’s “outdoor” design was pretty unique and, as I recall, unprecedented for its time. Most of the Cafe Square theming still exists with its faux two-story storefronts, though recent additions to the court such as Media Play with its Big Box look have broken the theme heavy-handedly.

Adhering to the theme, the Hampshire 6 theaters sported a beautiful three-sided gold marquee with tracers and gilt-edged poster frames along the expansive brick walls. Cinemark’s new multiplex in the same location admittedly has a nice retro-movie palace interior, at least outside the auditoriums themselves, but it has a stark flat wall facade with only a few interesting Art Deco touches along the top corners. Sleek and “modern”, sure, but I kinda miss the ol' gold marquee.

The two cinemas added in the mid 80s also were the first in the area to feature dolby stereo. Overall these theatres (although some were smaller) were an improvement over Mountain Farms Four Theatres because the screen covered basically the entire front of the theatre. At Mountain farms they still had the stairway going up to the exit door which took up almost 1/3 of the back wall, leaving a ridiculously small and high screen. Not a great place to see Star Wars, etc. Four auditoria seated about 335 people the other two seated 165 each. Instead of curtains they had some abstract modern decorations on the walls. The lobby/concession area had a color scheme which complemented the Cafe Square’s old-downtown look.